New horizons in hydrogen bonded clusters in solution

Abstract

Breakthroughs in X-ray and neutron diffraction of liquids and solutions by the advent of intense synchrotron radiation, pulsed neutron sources, and an area detector of imaging plate over the last two decades have enabled us to manifest the structures of hydrogen-bonded clusters in solution on the molecular level over a wide range of temperature and pressure covering the supercritical state. Furthermore, computer simulation techniques with empirical potentials based on experiments have revealed the orientational correlation and three-dimensional pictures of hydrogen bonded clusters in solution. The microscopic structures manifested by using these techniques have been described as examples of methanol and ethanol-water binary solutions from ambient to the supercritical state. The roles of hydrogen-bonded clusters have been demonstrated for micelle formation of non ionic surfactant MEGA-8 and alcohol-induced α-helix formation of chymotrypsin inhibitor 2 in aqueous mixtures of ethanol. © 1999 IUPAC.